MEF, a global industry association of network, cloud, and technology providers who drive network transformation to power the digital economy, has published new SD-WAN standards that add critical enhancements, including new service capabilities for underlay connectivity, important application performance metrics, and security zones for service providers deploying SD-WAN managed services.
The new standards include:
- MEF 70.1 updates MEF 70, the industry’s first global SD-WAN standard, to include new service attributes for underlay connectivity services, new measurable performance metrics that provide visibility into an application’s performance within the provider network and across multiple service providers, and the infrastructure to support application-based security defined in MEF 88.
- MEF 88, MEF’s first security standard, enhances an SD-WAN service to add security functions. These include defining threats, malware protections, security policy terminology and attributes, and describing what actions a policy should take in response to certain threats.
- MEF 95 provides a unified policy framework for MEF’s SD-WAN (MEF 70.1), network slicing (MEF 84), SASE (MEF W117), and zero trust (MEF W118) standards coming in 2022.
“MEF develops standards and certifications to provide clarity and assurance and remove complexity for SD-WAN managed services. The new standards define the service behavior and associated policy language needed to deliver high-performance, secure SD-WAN managed services,” said Pascal Menezes, chief technology officer, MEF. “These standards, and the forthcoming SASE and Zero Trust standards, benefit both customers and providers—customers know what to expect when purchasing SD-WAN managed services from a provider, and providers have the tools needed to deliver secure SD-WAN services that drive customer satisfaction.”
The global SD-WAN service market is estimated to grow from $2.85 billion in 2020 to $14.5 billion in 2025, as more users are connecting to the cloud and cloud-based applications. In this regard, Roopa Honnachari, vice president of research & global program leader – network & edge services, Frost & Sullivan, commented, “MEF’s work in standardizing and certifying SD-WAN managed services is helping to drive that adoption, and we believe certified services and professionals will continue to play an important role in moving the market forward.”
Organizations benefit from SD-WAN-certified services, technologies, and professionals
The MEF 3.0 SD-WAN certification program for service providers and technology vendors validates compliance with MEF standards for delivering managed SD-WAN services and the underlying technology, removing market confusion, and enabling faster market adoption.
In 2022, secure SD-WAN requirements will be added to the MEF 3.0 certification program. To date, 17 companies have achieved MEF 3.0 SD-WAN certification. In addition, the MEF-SDCP Professional Certification training and certification provides an opportunity for the engineers, architects, product managers, and others deploying SD-WAN solutions to demonstrate their expertise in MEF 3.0 service standards. Worldwide, there are over 700 MEF-SDCP professionals employed by more than 120 companies.
